Monday, October 20, 2014

The Manhunt Continues

ALMOST … AGAIN

It’s maddening. There was a flurry of activity this
afternoon, not in the “hot zone” as we had come to expect it, but a little
south of that area and much too close to a local school complex. Pocono
Mountain East schools include a high school, a junior high school, an
intermediate school, and an elementary school on one campus. Very near the
school – almost across a road, in fact, is Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine division
of the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world, Sanofi-Aventis.
Almost directly across from Sanofi on a major artery in the county is the
Swiftwater Pennsylvania State Police Barracks.

This campus was one that was closed for a week when the
manhunt for accused assassin Eric Frein began in mid-September. We have been
told that a “credible sighting” of Frein took place quite near the high
school around 9 p.m. Friday, when a local woman was out walking and it would
seem shone a flashlight on Frein who suddenly appeared. According to reports,
he was within twenty feet of her, and she described him accurately to the law
enforcement officers who questioned her. She confirmed that he was carrying a “rifle
with a scope” and said he did not threaten her. This happened not far from the
football field, and there was a football game taking place at the time.

Despite this sighting, school officials elected to have the
schools on the Swiftwater campus open today. Then ─ just about the time the
schools were due to be dismissed ─ there was a huge flurry of LEO activity.
According to a reporter for one of the TV channels, “Today's intense Frein search started when
a local officer giving his K9 a break saw someone suspicious run into woods in
Swiftwater.”

Just before schools began to be dismissed, it appears there was a
sizable gathering of LEOs on the scene, including a large number of K9 troops. The
high school and junior high school busses left on schedule. The other two
schools, as nearly as I can surmise, were held for a time. The high school
football and cheerleading teams were bussed to Pocono Mountain West High School
for their practice. Whether they were returned to P.M. East to be picked up is
uncertain.

Employees of Sanofi were very much aware of low-flying helicopters. This
was very close to a shift change at the company, and some were concerned about
getting to their cars safely, or even being able to leave the premises in order
to get home. There were news crews all around the area, and one was advised to
move away from a particular area for “their own safety.”

It really began to seem as if the LEOs finally had their man. Many of us
were following all this on Facebook, amazingly enough. A local page had been
established fairly recently for those most impacted by the search to share what
they were witnessing firsthand with others of us who were hungry for news. It
was nail-biting time, to be sure. However, the resolution seems to be that once
again, Frein slipped away from his pursuers.

The particular page on which I, as well as many other people, were being
made aware of what was happening had 219 members when I joined it. I believe
some two weeks later it has over 1,000, and has gone from “public” to “private”
to “secret.” Reading the comments .. there were well over four hundred … almost
gave us a sense of being there. Some of those commenting were at Sanofi. Some
were parents of Pocono Mountain East school students who were agonizing over a
child who wasn’t yet safely home. When we had word of a child arriving, I think
all of us breathed a sigh of relief.

The administrators of this page keep a close rein on this group. Minimum
speculation, just report what you personally are witnessing. Any members who
stray too far are blocked from the group. So what I’ve shared with you I
believe is accurate information. The sense of immediacy in following the thread moment-by-moment is difficult to describe.

Now sunset has come and gone, and the best opportunities for
apprehending Eric Frein seem to have once more ended.

About Me

After growing up in the unique town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, I went to the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati as a vocal performance major. I met and married a tenor and we had three children, and moved to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania in 1971 where I established a private voice studio and began directing community and high school musical productions. While in Cincinnati I had the good fortune to be on the administrative staff of the Edgecliff Academy of Fine Arts and the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival.

Here in the Poconos, I directed over eighty musicals from 1984-2015, and had the privilege of seeing many of my private voice students become teachers, professional performers, and most of all, find the joy in using their singing voices.

In 2013 I fulfilled a lifelong dream and wrote my first ever book, a novel entitled HOW I GREW UP, My second novel, ELI'S HEART, was published in June, 2014. My third novel, YOU ARE MY SONG, was released in January, 2015. Novel number four, JAMIE'S CHILDREN, was released in July, 2016, and MEMORIES OF JAKE in March, 2017. MAN WITH NO YESTERDAYS is scheduled to be released on Nov. 11, 2017. My first non-fiction book, "MORE FOG, PLEASE" about my 31 years as a director for community and high school musicals, was released on November 11, 2015.